by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

When you get “turned on” at your first cochlear implant (CI) mapping session,  it’s a given that the sounds you’ll first hear will not sound normal at all. Don’t be surprised at the strange, robotic nature of the voices you first hear. In time, your brain will learn to understand them and they will begin to sound normal to you.

In order to help your audiologist produce the best map, you’ll need to describe these unearthly sounds and often that can be a challenge. To make things easier for you, following is a list of words people with cochlear implants have used to describe the quality of sounds they heard during or after mapping sessions.

These words also may relate to sounds people have experienced that may indicate a problem with equipment (i.e., a processor cord). Note that how one person perceives a sound may not be the same as another person might perceive that same sound, thus, words on this list could mean entirely different things to different people. When choosing a term(s) to describe your listening experience, be prepared to explain it in more detail to your audiologist.

Here’s some words to get you started.

Banging
Barking
Bass
Beeping
Blaring
Blunted
Blurred
Booming
Bottom of a Barrel/Well
Breathy
Buzzy

Cartoonish
Chimes
Chipmunk
Chirpy
Chopped Up
Clangy
Clashy
Clear
Clicking
Clinking
Clipping
Compressed
Cottony
Crackling
Crinkling
Crisp
Cut Off
Cutting Out
Cymbals

Damped
Disembodied
Distorted
Droning
Ducks quacking
Ducks underwater
Dulled

Echoing/Echoey
Electronic

Fading
Far Away
Flat
Flour-y
Fluctuating
Fog horn
Frog in throat
Fuzzy
Fuzzy on the edges

Garbled
Gargling/Gargly
Grating
Gravelly
Growly
Gurgling

Harsh
Helium
Hissy/”essi” (too much, or not enough “s”)
Hoarse
Hollow

Indistinct
Intermittent

Jumping Out

Layered

Mechanical
Metallic
Metal Pipe
Microphonish
Motorboating
Muffled
Multiple voices
Murky
Mushy
Muted

Nasal

Off the station (radio out of tune)
Ooooom
Out of Focus
Out there (voices sound disconnected from bodies)

Piss-y (“P” sounds)
Pitch
Plinky
Pointy (like “crisp”)

Quacking

Raspy
Resonant
Resonating
Reverberating
Roaring
Robotic
Rough
Rumbling

Screechy
Shadow voices
Sharp
Shrill
Sibilant (too hissy)
Snap
Soft
Solid
Spongy
Squashed
Squawky
Squeal
Squeezed
Static/Police radio-like

Tapping
Thin
Throaty
Tinkley
Tinny
Tunnel-Like/Metal tunnel
Tweety

Underwater

Vibrating

Warbling
Whiny
Whispery
Whistling
White noise

Zipper-y

Note: The words on the above list were contributed by adult cochlear implant users on the CI Forum and Nucleus Forum and compiled by Camille Jones. This list may be reprinted for further distribution. July 2, 2001; Revised May 2005. The original of this list is located at http://www.cochlearcommunity.com/data/files/E/EllenBR/Say_It_in_CI_-_by_Camille_Jones.pdf.